1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microfluidic chip design which is used to isolate particles or cellular materials into various components and fractions, using laminar flows.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the separation of various particles or cellular materials—for example, the separation of sperm into viable and motile sperm from non-viable or non-motile sperm, or separation by gender—the process is often a time-consuming task, with severe volume restrictions. Thus, current separation techniques cannot, for example, produce the desired yield, or process volumes of cellular materials in a timely fashion.
Thus, there is needed a separation technique and apparatus which is continuous, has high throughput, provides time saving, and which causes negligible or minimal damage to the various components of the separation. In addition, such an apparatus and method should have further applicability to biological and medical areas, not just in sperm sorting, but in the separation of blood and other cellular materials, including viral, cell organelle, globular structures, colloidal suspensions, and other biological materials.